Education is an investment to development and poor study methods should not compromise the mandate of higher education institutions to generate, preserve and disseminate knowledge and produce high quality graduates. Universities admit students with varying backgrounds in terms of learning/study styles, levels of preparedness and concepts of…

The focus of the present experiments was to examine the effect of adapting the context of a presentation to a student's background. The results showed familiarity of context to be an influential factor in learning quantitative material. (Author/PN)

Three paired-associate learning studies were designed to test the hypothesis that individual differences in learning speed are determined by the types of elaborative strategies used by learners during acquisition. Slow learners generate fewer elaborators and produce less effective elaborators, even when using the same strategy as fast learners.…

Introduces a study conducted to establish the relevance and significance of a new model to describe individual differences in learning patterns among college students in the general chemistry program. Concludes that individual students learn and demonstrate understanding in different ways, and understanding those differences makes for more…

Examined cognitive learning styles and levels of moral judgment in 781 urban college students, who completed the Grasha-Riechmann Student Learning Style Scale or the Defining Issues Test. Results showed predominantly participative and collaborative cognitive learning styles. The prevailing view of morality was doing one's duty within society. (JAC)

Investigated the metacognitive development of a group of students in a course aiming to develop deep approaches and conceptual understanding. Found considerable diversity in the approaches used by students, and also in the degrees to which those not initially using a conceptual (deep) approach were able to develop this approach. (EV)

This longitudinal study examined the question of change and stability in students' used learning strategies during the first 2 years of study at the university. A total of 188 students from Tilburg University in the Netherlands took part in the study, including 90 in law, 27 in art, 48 in economics, and 23 in the social sciences. The students…

The influence of two sources of individual differences in acquiring knowledge from maps was studied: abilities and learning procedures. Twenty-five undergraduate students provided verbal protocols while attempting to learn two maps, and six effective learning procedures were identified: partitioning, imagery, memory-directed sampling, pattern…

Extended research on cognitive factors that may differentially underlie test anxiety and academic performance by assessing differences in (a) information-processing strategies used to encode course-work information, (b) degree of belief in one's negative self-statements, (c) Type A behavior, (d) test-taking skills, and (e) unrealistic expectations…

An investigation was undertaken to determine whether highly aroused (e.g. highly anxious) students are handicapped with regard to their ability to learn through deep processing and elaboration. The hypothesis that well-developed deep and elaborative habits of thought might counteract the disruptive effects that excessive arousal has upon students…

Studies based on an individual-difference model of student learning are reviewed. The "fitting" of conceptual models of student learning to atypical individual-similarity data structures is discussed, and an experimental categorization for such structures is outlined. Use of a locus model is also examined. It is argued that conceptual models of…

A study of 325 university students explored relationships between personality and learning styles in students with high or low self-esteem. Ways that personality and learning theory can combine to help define individual differences in learning, their origins, manifestation, and amenability to change are examined. Implications for achievement,…

This article first identifies characteristics of the strategic learner and then suggests two methods colleges can use to teach strategic learning: (1) the adjunct approach (which involves adding instruction in strategic learning to the general curriculum) and (2) the metacurriculum approach (which integrates strategic learning strategies into…

Individual differences in the recall of procedural and structural/functional information was investigated in situations in which students studied in dyads or alone. Subjects were 303 undergraduates. Dyadic study proved more effective than studying alone. (TJH)

Three experiments in the framework of Activity Theory explored the relationship between the questions of 104 male and 88 female adult learners (college students) and subsequent comprehension in a tutorial learning session. Questions asked during knowledge implementation aid comprehension more than do those asked during acquisition. (SLD)